“[A] melancholy tale. . . . Trauma, and especially denial of it, makes connections too brittle to last, and efforts to paper over it with money or convenient stories are doomed to failure. Difficult, both rhetorically and thematically, but worthwhile.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“I’m absolutely crazy about this novel. . . . A stylistic masterpiece.”
— Information, praise for the Swedish-language edition
“[An] astonishing novel. . . . [Fagerholm’s] style is evocative, agitative, flowing . . . merciless in her portrayal of human hypocrisy, whilst also writing insightfully in a number of side stories about love and friendship. . . . No one [in Who Killed Bambi?] is capable of putting themselves in another person’s shoes. But Monika Fagerholm is. And she does it with bite and wit.”
— Politiken, praise for the Swedish-language edition
“There are some things that should never change in this world. Monika Fagerholm’s prose is one of them.”
— Helsingin Sanomat, praise for the Swedish-language edition
“Fagerholm writes in an explosive and suggestive prose. . . . A complex, mythological and explosive novel. . . . A furious, scorching and pounding depiction of failed youths in an upper-class reality.”
— Kristeligt Dagblad, praise for the Swedish-language edition
“Brutal, harrowing and magnificently intense novel. . . . Fagerholm masterfully succeeds in portraying the chain of lies, denials, excuses and circumvention mechanisms that the rape sets into motion. . . . Despite the gloomy theme, the book is definitely not without humor—of the bitter and sharp kind. . . . A reading experience of the highest quality.”
— Verdens Gang, praise for the Swedish-language edition
“Fagerholm’s language is fearsomely creative and playful. . . . She is also bitingly ironic in her depiction of suburbia’s bourgeois snobbery—there’s plenty of class-conscious social criticism to be had here. Fagerholm’s dark, funny and fascinating novel strikingly hints at what will ultimately be killed, and why.”
— Dagbladet, praise for the Swedish-language edition
“An intricate novel tuned with a quiet rage. Only a great author knows how to generate such linguistic energy.”
— Dagens Nyheter, praise for the Swedish-language edition
“The fantastic and fairy tale-like goes hand in hand with the horrific in a tale wherein Fagerholm shows how destructive it can be to wrap oneself in sorrow and pain, for the individual as well as a community at large.”
— Svenska YLE, praise for the Swedish-language edition
Most Anticipated, The Millions
— The Millions
“[A] hard-hitting experimental novel. . . . The persistence of trauma is itself a potent message. Who Killed Bambi? is a sobering and timely fable.”
— Foreword Reviews